the idea that courts should, if at all possible, defer to the elected ranges of government. should not overturn law. and it was the liberals who are always trying to overturn law. and it was potter stewart and lewis powell and sandra day o'connor who were preaching judicial restraint. but citizens united was a case where just a few years earlier, george w. bush had signed the mccain-feingold law or in just two years earlier, or more than two as i think, for years earlier the supreme court has affirmed the constitutionality of the mccain-feingold law. but in a story i tell at greater length in trenton, the conservative majority converted a relatively minor dispute over an obscure film put out by a nonprofit corporation into a complete rewriting of our campaign finance laws, based on the dual metaphors that corporations are people, and money is speech. and those two ideas are at the heart of citizens united, and they are the story -- and that decision is very much the story of the 2012 presidential and perhaps even more importantly, lower about race -- lower ballot raise. that